Our office follows the schedule set by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We feel most strongly that vaccines continue to be a primary part of our mission in ensuring the health of children. We discourage any deferral of vaccines for patients in our practice. We understand that there may be rare circumstances in which families desire alternative vaccine schedules; in such cases we request that you schedule a consultation to discuss a change in the standard, recommended schedule so as to best care for your child and determine an alternative schedule.

MEDICAL HOME

We believe that to provide the most comprehensive, safest care for your child, our office should be your first contact when your child is sick. Please come in to or call our office before visiting Urgent Care or seeing a specialist. When we are most informed and the care of your child is most consistent, the child's health is optimized.

ANTIBIOTICS

Our office is committed to the judicious use of antibiotics. We follow evidence-based guidelines and have been able to work with our patients to ensure that antibiotics are available and used when necessary, while avoiding unnecessary exposure based on risks of resistance and side effects. We do not routinely call in antibiotics over the phone.

APPOINTMENTS

We attempt to allocate adequate time for every appointment we schedule. Please inform us of all of your concerns when scheduling an appointment so that we can allot the right amount of time to thoroughly address each issue. We hold open same-day time slots for sick visits. We request that you call as soon as possible if you cannot keep an appointment so that time may be made available to other children in need. Well visits can be scheduled up to 6 months in advance.

​ADDRESSING ADDITIONAL TOPICS AT WELL VISITS

Please remember that preventive care is a vital part of child health. We approach well visits with a list of topics to address. If you anticipate discussing other, ongoing health issues at a check-up, one of two things will most likely occur: (1) if time does not permit, you may be asked to schedule a follow-up visit to address that issue, or (2) based on coding requirements of insurance, attending to those additional issues and based on coding requirements of insurance companies, attending to those issues may generate a co-pay for that visit.

We always have a doctor on call for our office who can be reached through our answering service at (301) 570-7339. Between 10 pm and 7:30 am (8 am on weekends), our calls are sent to a nurse advice line for routine matters. If you call the answering service to speak to a doctor and have not heard back within 20-30 minutes, please call the answering service again. While we do not have routine weekend hours, the on-call doctor will often arrange to see patients in the office. We request that you call us on evenings and weekends prior to seeking care at the Emergency Department or Urgent Care, unless it is a medical emergency requiring you to call 911.

BILLING AND FEES

We will submit each office visit to your insurance. However, some costs are not covered by certain insurance plans. Please understand you will be responsible for co-pays, as well as other services not covered by your insurance plan. For a list of our fees for these non-covered services, please click here.

INSURANCE

We accept many different insurance plans and will work with you to understand your family's plan; however, please make sure you understand the terms of your plan, including co-payments and deductibles. If you have questions, your insurance company is a good resource for clarification.

​TIMELINESS FOR EVERYONE

We make every attempt to keep to our schedule as we know that your time is valuable. Please call our office if you are running late. If you have missed your appointment time, we may have to reschedule your child.

TECHNOLOGY

The use of technology can make your child's health information more easily accessible to you. Please sign up for our patient portal and use that as a method for contacting us, as well as reviewing various aspects of your child's health care, including visit summaries, growth charts, and vaccine records. However, technology has its pit falls; please use the internet with caution when searching for information about your child or specific health conditions. Visit only medically reputable websites such as the American Academy of Pediatrics' www.kidshealth.org.

SPECIALIST CARE

Please contact our office first if you believe your child needs to see a specialist. We believe it is in the best interest of your child that we know about all aspects of your child's health. In addition, we can guide you to those specialists we feel provide the best care to children. Please ask that any specialist you see sends a report directly to our office.